Diwali is one of the most
colorful, sacred and loveliest festivals of the Hindus. It is celebrated every
year with great joy and enthusiasm throughout the length and breadth of the
country.

The festival of Diwali marks the happy return of
lord Rama to Ayodhya after fourteen year’s exile. It is a festival of lights
and festivities. It comes off about twenty days after Dussehra and
shows the advent of winter. It is to the Hindus what Christmas is
to the Christians. It lends charms and delight to our life.

“Shrīkrushna
liberated the troubled masses from immorality, greed and bad tendencies by
slaying the demon Narakasur, who was an icon of demonic attitude. Diwali
symbolises this conquest of Divine thoughts over evil tendencies. Today,
unfortunately, Diwali is celebrated just as a cultural festival, without an
understanding of its spiritual context.

However, if people learn, appreciate and
understand this spiritual context then all the ills in society; caused by
spiritual ignorance, carnal and bad tendencies would reduce and even the
dominance of immoral people over the pious masses will subside.

Therefore,
igniting the flame of one’s soul with spiritual passion, by reducing all
worldly attachments can be known as true “Diwali.” The increased power of
piousness will lend happiness to everyone. This is possible by sacrificing
our carnal pleasures without any expectations. The Upanishads have
advised to seek pleasure in the reduction of that very pleasure itself !

O
God, through this Diwali, please light the bright flame of doing every action
without any expectations in our hearts. We have surrendered ourselves
unto you completely. Please give us the spiritually pure (Sattvik) intellect
(sadbuddhi) and strength to spread these noble thoughts to everyone so that we
can become like a single earthen lamp that ignites multiple lamps around
it. Through this we would be graced to celebrate ‘Diwali’ in its truest purpose
and spirit. I wish everybody a Blissful Diwali !”

–
H. H. Pande Maharaj, SanatanAshram, Panvel, India.

Diwali celebration the Hindu way

1. Introduction

Diwali
in recent years is being considered and celebrated as a cultural activity. It
is thought of, as the time of the year to buy new clothes, sweets, to
illuminate homes with colourful electric lights and hang lanterns. There is a
lot of fanfare in the form of parties, dancing to film music or western music
and even drinking alcohol. All this is done in the name of a festival which has
to be celebrated with sanctity in a spiritually correct way.

Diwali
is one of the important Hindu festivals, which
comprises of four consecutive days of celebrations. Diwali festival starts with
Dhantrayodashi or Dhanteras, followed by Narak-Chaturdashī and Lakshmi-pūjān on 2nd November, and Balipratipada on 3rd November.

2. Significance of Diwali

Every
day of Diwali represents the conquest of good over evil. The word Diwali is
made of two words; deep (lamp or diyas) and avali (row), which means a
line or a row of lamps. During the festival of Diwali lamps are lit in
every home and workplace. That is why this festival is also known as the
‘Festival of Lights’.

3. Diwali celebration in a spiritually correct
way

a.
When we shop for new clothes we can buy clothes like sārī for ladies and
kurtā-pyjāmā or dhoti for men, long skirts for girls and kurta-pyjama for boys. Wearing such sāttvik clothes helps to
imbibe more positivity.

b.
Giving gifts to friends and families is a new trend, which is unnecessary.
However if we still wish to gift then we can choose gifts like items used for
ritualistic worship, books on Spirituality, etc. When we indulge in such
practices there are expectations from each other.

c.
Rather than ordering commercially, if possible we can try to make sweets,
snacks or food at home, using pure ghee and fresh products. Thus we can ensure
purity in the food we consume.

d.
If we wish to have a get-together we can organise a pūjā rather than a
party.

e.
On the three days of Diwali starting Narak Chaturdashi we can wake up at dawn and have a bath with oil massage
(abhyangasnā). Such a bath increases our Sattva component by
0.00001% compared to regular bath on other days. By applying ubtan the
sensitivity of the body to absorb Chaitanya (Divine Consciousness) increases.

f.
Music like bhajans or shlokas can be played rather than playing noisy music
which spreads Raja-Tama vibrations and
pollutes the atmosphere.

g.
Flowers like marigold can be used to make a garland along with mango leaves and
hung at the main door.

i.
If we wish to celebrate Diwali as a community we can organise a rangoli competition, bhajan singing, etc. rather than games like
lotto, food stalls, jewellery stalls, etc.

j.
We can devote time to prayers and chanting during the days of Diwali as it will
help us to absorb the Divine Consciousness (Chaitanya) present in the
atmosphere.

k.
The lady of the house should do aukshan (waving
of lit lamps) for the other members of the family.

l.
Nowadays many people light wax candles as they are easier to handle. However do
you know that wax does not emit positive vibrations ? At twilight we can light
oil lamps made of clay rather than acrylic or glass to illuminate our homes. We
can avoid artificial lighting like relay of electric bulbs or lanterns in the
shape of a Star or Chinese lanterns

m.
We can discourage children from lighting fire-crackers as they are a waste of
money and the smoke that is emitted pollutes the atmosphere and can be
hazardous to health.

4. Conclusion

We
pray that you will be able to celebrate this Diwali in a spiritually
correct way and experience joy and derive maximum benefit of the Divine
Consciousness (Chaitanya) of this years Diwali celebration.

We
look forward to hearing from you about your experiences. Kindly e-mail us at
shoumikdas3@gmail.com

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